Robin Coupland is advisor on nonviolence and the effects of weapons for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Coupland begins his talk by asking for consensus regarding the definition of a weapon. "It's rather strange to say that weapons are bad for your health, but in fact, if you think about it, a weapon is actually designed to have an impact on one's physical wellbeing," Coupland asserts. "I hope that you would agree with me that a useful weapon equals armed violence, and that the effects of armed violence are, therefore, a health issue."
Any impact on health has identifiable risk factors. Presenting a statistical model of armed violence that applies to any use of any weapon with any effects, Coupland identifies four risk factors for the effects of armed violence: the nature of the weapon, the number of weapons in use, the way the weapon is used, and the vulnerability of the victim.
His statistical model also applies to coercion, which is a prerequisite to sexual violence. Coupland depicts a wartime scenario in which "there are many armed, undisciplined males with intent, who have no fear of punishment, who know who is vulnerable, and who exploit that vulnerability." He adds that vulnerability results from the lack of an effective police force or governance.
Regarding the use of the terms lethal and "nonlethal" weapons, Coupland argues that it is incorrect to refer to lethality as an inherent property of a weapon because
lethality is an outcome of context that includes vulnerability, the nature of the violence, and the number of weapons used. He notes that "nonlethal" weapons are only "nonlethal" under certain dosage guidelines or exposure levels or other conditions, so the definition is a bit more complicated. In addition, "nonlethal" weapons like certain gasses or drugs can be used to raise the vulnerability of both civilians and combatants, leading to situations that can, intentionally or not, prove lethal. Given these complexities, Coupland ends his discussion by making a plea to proponents of new weapons to give full consideration to the disadvantages in the use of these weapons.
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